One reason that I remember when this happened is because it happened on my X-wifes birthday.  It was the first of March, 1997. 

On that day eight tornadoes touched down in Arkansas. I was still married back then.  I stayed home that day since I had a test to study for. Soon after my x-wife left with my boys and her parents to go birthday shopping in Little Rock, AR, the power went out. It was only cloudy with a strong breeze up in Searcy. So I just opened the front door and let the light in that way so I could see what I was studying.

We had a cat back then that we called L.T.B. That stood for Long Tail Baby and yes he had a very loooong tail. He practically never came into the house unless the weather was bad. While I was studying he came in and curled up beside me.

Since the power was out, I didn’t have the TV or radio on. Just after 3pm I got a call from my Father-n-law’s girlfriend. She was in Pine Bluff, AR. She asked me if I knew if my parents were ok. I still did not have power and she told me that she was watching the news. They were showing Arkadelphia, AR where I had grown up and where my parents still lived. What she said on the phone was scaring me.
 
Less than an hour later, the power came on and I immediately turned on the TV. They were showing scenes from Arkadelphia. I used to work at the radio station there and the owner told me once that Arkadelphia had never had a tornado in its history and according to experts there was only one way for a tornado to come into that town. The line he drew on the map went right across my parents house.

On the TV they were many showing the damaged areas and I recognized one empty lot. The Tornado (class 5) had wiped a brick building completely off that lot. That lot was only 3 blocks from my parents house. I then started trying to call my parents, but I got no answer. I then started calling my Uncle and all I got was a busy signal.

It was another 2 hours before my dad finally called me. He and mother were ok. But he had a story to tell.

The power in Arkadelphia went out 3 hours before the tornado hit. Before the Tornado could get to my parents house, it had to go up a steep hill. That hill made it jump 3 blocks. My dad had been sitting in the back room of the house where he like to watch sports. He heard the sound of the tornado and decided to go take a look. My dad was in his early 60’s and was having a bladder problem. His standing up made him need to go to the bathroom. So he went. Within seconds of him sitting on the toilet everything happened.  The tornado jumped over the house, knocking over two big trees. The neighbors  tree smashed the garage and sent the bricks through the window of that back room and they just shattered that chair my dad had been sitting in. The other big tree was the one in the front yard.  It fell on the front of the house crushing the front room, attic and furniture all the way down to the floor. Dad would have been standing at the window in that spot, if he didn’t go to the bathroom.  We now tease my dad that God gave him that bladder problem to save him from the tornado.

My mother was up in Little Rock. She had gone up there the night before to help my sister move out. My sister had bought a new place and needed to stay at my parents for a month. She didn’t get to do that since the house got messed up.

My X-wife, my sons and her parents had to spend 3 hours in the basement of Montgomery Wards, until they got the all clear.

Two weeks later, I came down during Spring Break to help clean up. It was weird to see my old neighborhood without all its trees. It used to be a very shady street.  It is so strange to see the house you grew up in almost destroyed by a tornado.  It was almost a year before my parents were able to move back in.

About 80 blocks had been destroyed that day in Arkadelphia.  It was the first tornado to ever touch down in that towns history.